What Do Potato Bugs Eat? How to Get Rid of Potato Bugs

If you ever grew potatoes, then you must have seen the infestation of small, extraterrestrial insects crawling on the surface of leaves and near the roots. They can be quite a mess for your potato plants. They are known as potato bugs, and if you have questions hovering in your mind, like What do Potato Bugs Eat and How to Get Rid of Potato Bugs, then you are at the right place!

Potato bugs are classified into two different categories:

The Jerusalem Crickets or potato bugs (Stenopelmatus fuscus) are discovered in the western and southern regions of the United States. They are a group of wingless insects having large, human-like jaws, heads, and an alien-like appearance. California potato bugs are large and can be 2-3 inches long. They also have amber-yellow heads, legs, and thoraxes with black-brown rinds on the abdomen.

Colorado Potato Beetles or potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) belong to the nightshade or Solanaceae family and are endemic to the United States except for Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Nevada.

Potato bugs barely reach an inch and have black vertical stripes with hard yellow-orange outer wings. In the late 1800s, potato bugs start ruining potato, tomato, eggplant, and pepper fields throughout North America and Europe. Now they can be witnessed throughout Asia.

During winters, the adult Potato Bugs go 5-10 inches underground in field margins, gardens, potato fields, and windbreaks.

The diet of Potato Bugs includes other insects, roots of vegetable crops, and course, their favorite – potato tubers in the potato field. Potato Bugs don’t just harm potato crops but other vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants from the Nightshade family. Female potato beetles lay eggs underneath the foliage, and